The field of this invention is catalysts prepared from atomically-dispersed catalytic metals. More specifically, the invention is concerned with solvated metal atom dispersed catalysts, referred to as "SMAD" catalysts.
Dr. Kenneth J. Klabunde and associates have developed and published a procedure for forming solvated metal atom dispersions, and have demonstrated the utility of this procedure for depositing atomic dispersions of catalytic metals on catalyst supports. See, for example, Klabunde et al. (1976), J. Am. Chem. Soc. 98: 1021-1023; and Matsuo and Klabunde (1982), J. Org. Chem., 47: 843-848.
SMAD monometallic catalysts have been prepared from a number of catalytic metals, including nickel, cobalt, iron, manganese, and chromium. In the 1976 paper cited above, it was suggested that the SMAD procedure might be useful for preparation of bimetallic particles. However, prior to the present invention, bimetallic SMAD catalysts are not known to have been prepared.
The work leading to the present invention was first reported by Klabunde and Imizu, named herein as co-inventors, in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 106: 2721-2722 (1984). The importance of the manganese-cobalt SMAD catalyst described by Klabunde and Imizu has been recognized in a subsequent article in Science, 224: 1329-1330 (June, 1984).